I understand they can charge higher prices, but they have basically doubled the prices for a bunch of tickets. They have pretty much doubled lower end zone prices from 40 bucks to 80 bucks for the bobcats? I was pissed about the 60 bucks for upper deck playoff tickets and now its 35 for upper endzone? These were like 10-14 dollar tickets before. These are basically terrible tickets and they are 35 bucks. I don't even remember the astros doing stuff like this after they went to the world series.
btw: it isn't the "Bobcats;" it's the season opener. That always goes for higher. I think you have your pricing wrong. You are using single game tickets assuming it is STH pricing. Plus, they change single game based on the game. Lower end-zone wasn't $40...maybe the last few rows?!. A lot of it was $60 something. As for upper deck: There can be a huge difference (rightfully so), between various sections of "upper endzone." I know for a fact, you're pricing isn't right for that.
That assumes they are maximizes their sales. This isn't true with the Rockets. Until they fill the stadium (sell it out), there are measurements that prove they aren't making as much money as they can. That's why they introduced mini-plans a few years ago, because they knew their pricing was too high, but couldn't drop it. Sports STH pricing does not work like other commodities do. It's more complicated than simply saying S&D. Plus, it assume sports teams ever drop prices based on poor demand. They hardly ever do.
I renewed my season tickets for $44 each for my lowerbowl tickets they were $42 each last year, but this was before Howard was signed. They went up right after that, I've been seeing the partial plan prices and 7 game packages are expensive so I knew when the individual game tickets were released it was going to be very expensive compared to last year. On another note people will pay $40-$50 for parking passes to Texans games and $150 for an upper bowl ticket is like a good deal to see them play. So it could be a lot worse.
Well, if the Rockets themselves don't raise the prices, it just gives secondary sellers (i.e., scalpers, guys selling tickets through stubhub) higher profit margins and incentive to buy up tickets from the Rockets and re-sell. The end-users, fans who actually go to the games, end up paying a higher price anyway. Now, if the Rockets have overdone it with the price increase (they do enough research and analysis to make sure that the increase rationally reflects the market and maximizes profit but even careful analysis can turn out to be wrong), they will end up with enough empty seats to make it an non-optimal situation for them, meaning that they will then have to consider lowering the prices.
I just bought 4 single game tickets for 2 games: Mavs 11/1 - Upper Sideline $40 each Nets 11/29 - Upper Sideline $70 each Prices definitely fluctuate depending on opponent caliber and weekend vs weekday
Section by section...Houston Rockets are the most expensive season ticket in the city to own BY FAR! A bball season tickets is about 2.5x the price of a football season ticket. 10 games vs 44 games is huge. I don't think STH prices have gone up like the OP said, but he is right about Les Alexander screwing this city on pricing ever since he got Yao Ming. And he never really tries to maximize butts in the house.
Yeah, you can't expect the season-opener to go for the same price as a middle-of-the-season game against the Bobcats. The price increase was justified given the demand this season, and like Carl said, if the Rockets didn't do it, scalpers would. I have a feeling that the increase in prices this season won't be met with too much disdain since it wasn't overly exorbitant.
i have a question regarding flashseats. how can you be sure that you don't sell tickets to opposing teams fans when you would rather not. like for a mavs game or jazz game. i don't want my tickets going to a jazz fan.
The demand is enough that there was a 35% increase in season ticket sales after Howard signed. The year before there was. 10% increase when Lin signed believe it or not. You can assume that that leaves a limited amount for individual sales. The seats selling to the public will be prices higher and the profit margin will be significant. Can't blame them for that sine what Carl said is true about scalpers.
How are you seeing the prices, I went to the website and it says tickets for home opener not on sale until tomorrow at 10.
I don't think there is a sum win here, yet....even with Howard. They cook those numbers to look nice. The real number is simply increase overall in total number of STHs. It's not just NEW ones. You have to consider those who drop out, too. The Lin numbers are due to people dropping their tickets after Yao...So, yeah, after the worst year of renewing, we get an up year of new. You can only go up. I'm willing to bet, total STHs dropped last year, too. Also they counted the increase in mini-packages. There was very, very few NEW sth's the year before Lin. As for Howard....again, an increase over what? Last years sales. New season tickets sales don't even go on sell before Howard was signed...no? So, Howard legitimately bumps are our STH sales, but that's after two years of people dropping them. We had our biggest drops post Yao/TMac Thus, they are actually struggling the last two years to get their demand back, but never dropped the price in their down years.
Individual tickets release season ticket holders 10/1 10:00am Rockets insiders 10/2 10:00am Public 10/3 10:00am